I think there should be more emphasis on the awesomeness of the case design in the description and the photos, particularly the plate. We all love a super rigid case! Might help sell it to the people scared off by the price.

Now, my ideal Clueboard would be this aluminum case with Alps support, split backspace, and the maximized bottom row with split space bar. Of all existing keyboards, this is the layout that most closely matches my own ideal layout. Should I hold out hope for this possibility or should I just settle for a Clueboard with my favourite MX switch at this point? I get my layout at least, just no Alps :(

hard to predict, some thoughts/observations of my MD years. Looking at the numbers after one day, the hypetrain has reached all stations by now. Hopefully i'm wrong, but chances might be high that we won't even reach the 100 tier, which leads to the situation, this aluminum case might be a one time wonder, never be seen again.

For the Alps situation, no chance to find and like vintage blacks or customized ergo clears ... to get close to your liking?

I'm lucky to have gotten two old boards build by GMK with clears being smooth as hell, which will get tweaked and have a new life soldered to this outstanding beauty.

Though decision, i know, but a variety of different switches is although nice to have (for me).

My hope was to put some mint/new blue Alps in an Alps Clueboard and there really is nothing close in the MX world. I do like linear switches too though, so there are some good MX options. Possibly Gateron Yellow or some vintage Cherries. I recently bought an old mystery board (looks like 1985 - 1987) with some unknown MX Black clones that look promising. Those might be an option too if they turn out to be good.